Adopting an Abandoned Farm

The author recounts leaving urban society for life on an old New England farm, describing the house, fields, auctions, buying livestock, keeping pets, starting a poultry enterprise, and the everyday repairs and routines that occupy country living. Essays mix practical guidance on animals and household tasks with affectionate anecdotes about companion creatures, lively accounts of markets and auctions, reflections on domestic amusements and local ghost stories, and lyrical passages on rural customs and losses such as the passing of peacocks, closing with a retrospective meditation on adapting to and valuing simpler farm life.